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Update July 18th: The installation has been removed. The wooden dowels on which the hands were mounted have been cut and are sticking out of the ground. The hands and the stone with ‘86’ have been removed from the site.

86 Hands - 86 Turbines

Creative Form of Protest

As posted earlier on this site, the Canadian Hydro Developer’s Wolfe Island project has reduced this beautiful tourism gem to an industrial wasteland. Sensitive provincially-significant wetlands have been destroyed and the tourism industry has died.

Recently, Wolfe Island residents woke up to a strange site. 86 plaster hands (representing the 86 wind turbines) poking up from the ground, each holding a rock. Read more on this story here: Guerilla Sculpture

WOW! This shows how much people concern about wind farms on the Island. What the developers have done to the Wolfe Island is a big shame. Our government doesn’t care about people – money decides where and how many turbines are going to be placed right beside homes. The group (or person) behind this art display deserves my applause! Well done! I’m with you guys!

CHDI says that industrial turbine development like their project on Wolfe Island helps rural communities preserve their wetlands. What a joke.

The company notified the Township that they would be adding overhead lines along this stretch of wetland. They added an extension to the culvert; then the next day “the Township” decided (what a surprise) to widen the road only where the new poles were to go. 200mX6mX5m of construction waste dumped into a provincially significant wetland supporting threatened species and fish breeding habitat — all the engineering, layouts, grading, materials and labour “donated” by the company.

Sweet.

MOE and MNR stooges, only when forced, voicebox the company — can you believe they claim there is no loss to the wetland? No silt barriers, no protection. The EA process in Ontario is a bad joke. It is meaningless.

For those who live there, fished there, swam there and roamed the rural roads, creeks and wetlands now made monstrous with loose gravel and dust — tears of frustration, grief. Towers encroaching the 120m setback (some have blades whirring 50m inside the setback), wetlands used as dumping grounds, and all around the sound of never ending jet engines in the distance.

Loss of fish habitat is covered under the Federal Fisheries Act, Section 35 and as much as the province is supposed to report what is called a HADD (Harmful Alteration Disruption and Destruction) to the Federal Government it does not always happen. Loss of wetland and fisheries habitat is tricky to prove as the area must have proof, in a court of law, that the habitat existed prior to the destruction. Government agencies have good and not so good people working for them. The good people are not necessarily the ones doing the talking. If someone in a Government agency voices an opinion name names. Don’t let them hide behind an agency.

Why would anyone remove the installation? Is the statement too strong and too close to the truth? Glad to see someone is taking the efforts to document the statement. We are looking forward to more as these types of silent statements, with no words, get attention. Are copies of the hands going to be on sale to support those that are suffering from the ill effects of industrial wind turbines? Imagine the hands, now associated with industrial wind development impacts, showing up across the province, where no one can remove them.

Reports from the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Natural Resources were sent to the persons requesting investigation of the wetland encroachment. In the case of the MNR report, it was 5 days late and incomplete (pages of the report were missing).

The request for investigation under the ERT has been denied. Both ministries adopted the stance of the company completely — almost word for word.

The lesson to developers: if work has to be done in and around provincially significant wetlands supporting protected species and your company is prevented from polluting by commitments made in the Environmental Assessment, then just give the construction materials, labour, equipment and engineering to the Township for free and have them do the work on your behalf and behest.

Afterall, the municipality isn’t subject to the EA for the wind development and you’re paying all their legal bills. Helps if you have half the council in your pocket too (On CTV’s W-Five the CEO called this “developing champions on council” when they find “a resource we can exploit”).

The fact is the EA process is just another bit of paperwork to sign — when it comes to industrial wind energy development, there is no such thing as an environmental constraint in this province.

It has been reported that the Township was directed by the Mayor to remove the art installation. It was removed at night. The Mayor stated publicly when questioned by a resident that he had the installation removed. Apparently it is either still in his possession or has been destroyed.

The Mayor doesn’t take kindly to any opposition to his pet project.

The rock with the number 86 scralled on the surface has also been removed.

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